The Accelerator Conundrum: Navigating Your Path to Startup Success

Alright, let’s cut through the noise and get to the brutal truth of the startup accelerator world. Many entrepreneurs, starry-eyed and naive, leap headfirst into 3-month accelerator programs without truly understanding the long-term implications. It’s time for an incisive commentary, a necessary dissection.

1Mby1M Udemy Courses with Sramana Mitra: Financing

Raising money to build a startup is a huge challenge. To be able to raise any money at all, you must first understand how investors think. We have developed the following courses catering to entrepreneurs in different stages of their entrepreneurial journey.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Ray Wu, Alumni Ventures AI Fund (Part 1)

Ray Wu, Managing Partner at Alumni Ventures AI Fund, discusses the fund’s investment thesis.

Featured Videos

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Amir Kabir, Overlook Ventures (Part 1)

Amir Kabir, Founding Partner at Overlook Ventures, discusses his new firm’s investment Thesis around Risk. In addition, we had a great discussion on what younger aspiring entrepreneurs should do: jump into entrepreneurship right away, or learn a domain in a job.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: David Evans, Sentiero Ventures (Part 1)

David Evans, Managing Partner at Sentiero Ventures, discusses his firm’s AI investment thesis.

Start With Customers Not Investors

For our Seed Capital series of podcasts, I’ve interviewed hundreds of investors, especially micro-VCs and angels who play an important role in the early-stage game. The toughest round of funding an entrepreneur will seek to raise is Pre-seed. How do you increase your odds?

Pre-seed has the lowest probability of success. Over 99% of the entrepreneurs who seek financing are rejected. 

So, my humble advice to all entrepreneurs: please learn to assess your own probability of getting funded.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Felix Hartmann, Hartmann Capital (Part 1)

Felix Hartmann, Managing Partner at Hartmann Capital, discusses his firm’s investment thesis. This segment triggered an excellent discussion on Human Augmentation.

691st 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with David Evans, Sentiero Ventures

David Evans, Managing Partner at Sentiero Ventures, discusses his firm’s AI investment thesis.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Warren Packard, AI Fund (Part 1)

Warren Packard, Partner at AI Fund, discusses his firm’s investment thesis. Instead of founders pitching, the AI Fund operates as a Venture Studio and recruits repeat entrepreneurs with domain knowledge to build ventures based on their ideas.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Lisa Chai, General Partner at Interwoven Ventures (Part 1)

Lisa Chai, Co-founder and General Partner at Interwoven Ventures, discusses her firm’s investment thesis.

1Mby1M AI Investor Forum: Nicholas Fok, General Partner, Erez Capital (Part 1)

Nicholas Fok from Erez Capital discusses his firm’s investment thesis.

1Mby1M AI Investor Forum: Manu Rekhi, Managing Director at Inventus Capital Partners (Part 1)

Manu Rekhi, Managing Director at Inventus Capital Partners, discusses his firm’s AI investment thesis.

1Mby1M AI Investor Forum: Piyush Kharbanda, General Partner at Vertex Ventures (Part 1)

Piyush Kharbanda, General Partner at Vertex Ventures, discusses his firm’s AI investment thesis.

Best of Bootstrapping: Pre-Seed Fundraising is a Low Probability Game

For our Seed Capital series of podcasts, I’ve interviewed hundreds of investors, especially micro-VCs and angels who play an important role in the early-stage game. The toughest round of funding an entrepreneur will seek to raise is Pre-seed. How do you increase your odds?

Pre-seed has the lowest probability of success. Over 99% of the entrepreneurs who seek financing are rejected. Read more about the Probability of Pre-Seed Funding.

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1Mby1M AI Investor Forum: Mark Phillips, Founder and Managing Partner at 11 Tribes Ventures (Part 1)

Mark Phillips, Founder and Managing Partner at 11 Tribes Ventures, discusses a non-Unicorn chasing investment thesis.

1Mby1M AI Investor Forum: Shripati Acharya, Managing Partner at Priven Advisors (Part 1)

Shripati Acharya, Managing Partner at Priven Advisors, discusses his firm’s AI Investment Thesis. We have a very strategic discussion on SaaS, Marketplaces and Agentic AI.

1Mby1M AI Investor Forum: David Hornik, Lobby Capital (Part 1)

David Hornik, Founding Partner at Lobby Capital, discusses his firm’s AI investment thesis. This is an excellent discussion spanning Agentic AI and Ultralight startups.